Politics

Gravytrain Troopers

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In an era archly and promiscuously referred to as "wartime," one important safeguard of civilian government remains intact—voters are still largely indifferent to candidates' military records. Last Tuesday, Minnesotans rejected Korean War-era veteran Walter Mondale in favor of self-described "roady for Ten Years After" Norm Coleman. In South Dakota, incumbent Senator Tim Johnson, an Army veteran with a son serving in Afghanistan, squeaked by challenger John Thune only by bringing out the dead Indian vote. Ditto California governor Gray Davis, a Vietnam veteran nearly toppled by Bill Simon, a son so fortunate he's never even been in an Old Navy, let alone the U.S. Navy. When Annapolis graduate and former Marine Corps officer Ray Clatworthy promised to "fight to give our soldiers the resources they need and the respect they deserve," Delaware voters opted instead to give plagiarist/interventionist Joe Biden another six years in the Senate. Most notoriously of all, incumbent Senator Max Cleland (D-GA), who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, also lost his seat to Saxby Chambliss after Chambliss (a recipient of the Air Force Association's W. Stuart Symington Award who sat out the Vietnam War with a trick knee) impugned his patriotism.

This is not to rain on a Veteran's Day parade, nor to disparage the many combat and non-combat veterans who currently serve in American government. That voters have traditionally honored veteran status may be seen in the fact that 22 of 43 presidents served at least in militia or National Guard units. Granted, Ronald Reagan's commission of Captain may have been awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Air Corps and George W. Bush's record in the Texas Air National Guard is still a total mystery even to the President. But ten presidents have held the rank of General, and at least five—Washington, Jackson, W.H. Harrison, Grant and Eisenhower—were elected on little more than their silver-starred celebrity.

The American electorate is somewhere on a continuum between ignoring veteran status at the polls and following the quasi-fascist, veterans-only form of government eloquently promoted by Robert Heinlein in Starship Troopers (and even more eloquently satirized in Paul Verhoeven's Troopers movie). It's unlikely even the most adventurous voter would want a republic where Gulf War veteran John Allen Muhammad has more right to hold office than five-time Vietnam deferrer Dick Cheney. Nor is there much proof that service confers the seriousness of purpose we would like to believe it does. Hawks were disappointed by bomber pilot George McGovern; on the other hand, the Kosovo votes of Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) showed little evidence that the Nisei hero was weighing the tragic seriousness of war. When Bill Clinton, possibly the least militarily credible president in U.S. history, wanted to launch bombing campaigns in support of the Kosovo Liberation Army, he found the Congress (as always) more than willing to abdicate its war powers authority.

Chambliss voters are upset at the widespread characterization of their man as a bilious chicken hawk. After all, why should Cleland's lost limbs give him a pass on national security matters? But Chambliss' case that Cleland is soft on defense was built on Silly Putty: He criticized Cleland's repeated votes against creating the Department of Homeland Security, a boondoggle of truly New Deal proportions and an obvious early Ramadan gift to the terrorists. (This is not to give too much honor to Cleland's Nay votes, which were based on the Department's lack of worker guarantees rather than its dangerous uselessness.) To his partial credit, Chambliss stopped short of raising churlish questions about the grenade accident that mutilated Cleland, but as with all things in politics, what mattered most was perception. It's the appearance of military credibility, rather than actual military credibility, that speaks to the voters. The most depressing thing to consider may be not that America's veterans get no respect but that wanting to empower invisible man Tom Ridge qualifies as a serious commitment to America's defense.